Thursday, July 16, 2015

Westchester Square News: Cops Coming to Reduce Crime

Westchester Square News: Cops Coming to Reduce Crime: City Hall Finally Listens to Wakefield  Cops Coming to Reduce Crime By Robert Press BRONX, NEW ...

Cops Coming to Reduce Crime


City Hall Finally Listens to Wakefield 

Cops Coming to Reduce Crime





By Robert Press

BRONX, NEW YORK,JULY 16- Elizabeth Gill, President of the 47th Precinct Council, demanded action when crime was going way up last year in the 47th Precinct, and it seems that City Hall heard her.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton came to Cardinal Spellman High School to explain the new 'Summer All Out' police department program. It is a three-month program called 'Summer All Out' in the 10 highest crime police precincts. The mayor and police commissioner praised the new program that was started last month. Crime decreased in the 47th Precinct in Wakefield with shootings down 70 percent for the past month.

In the past the Mayor said that there was a chain of command that had to be gone through to change the deployment of police officers in a precinct. Now that red tape has been cut to allow for an almost instant redeployment of officers where they may be needed when problems pop up. The 47th Precinct has been assigned 26 additional officers for three months, and several other officers commonly refereed to as 'House Mouse Officers' have also been deployed into the streets of the precinct. In all there are 330 additional officers that have been sent to the 10 precincts in the 'Summer All Out' Program which began on June 8th. Other Bronx police precincts in this three month program are the 43rd, 44th, and 46th according to Bronx Assistant Chief Commanding Officer Larry Nikunen. 

Deputy Inspector Stevenson of the 47th Pct. had only praise for his police officers, and he thanked 47th Pct. Council President Elizabeth Gill for her help in getting his command the much needed manpower to reduce the high crime rate. 

Commissioner Bratton spoke of how the NYPD must keep coming up with new strategies to keep ahead of the bad guys. However when asked the question - that it looks like the first thing that the new street officers are doing is looking at car registration and inspection stickers when they arrive on their beat. I then said that to me it looks like these officers might have a ticket quota to fill. 

Commissioner Bratton fired back to me, 'Well that's what it looks like to you', and then stepped away from the podium without any real answer. I asked one of the new officers the same question, and was told if the situation warrants a summons it will be given. 47th Pct. Commanding Officer Stevenson said 'No Comment' when I asked him the same question.  

#NYPD #MayordeBlasio #Bratton #SummerAllOut #Bronxnews





Friday, July 10, 2015

Westchester Square News: Enough is Enough!

Westchester Square News: Enough is Enough!: Enough is Enough! Community Demands End to Violence (Photo by David Greene) By David Greene BRONX, NEW YOR...

Enough is Enough!


Enough is Enough!
Community Demands End to Violence

(Photo by David Greene)


By David Greene

BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 10- A group of community residents and clergy members gathered in the Allerton section in response to a recent shooting of a 20-year-old male. 

The group Stand Up to Violence (SUV) held a demonstration along Allerton Avenue and Wallace Avenue. The group’s planned rally had little effect on the days violence as Bronx homicide detectives were in Parkchester for most of the afternoon, after another 20 year-old was gunned down outside a playground with a toddler in his arms. The infant was unharmed. 

In fact the borough recorded no less than five homicides in the past week, but police officials say help is on the way in the form of more patrol officers on the street.

#NYPD #Shootings #Toddler #GunViolence #Bronxnews







Thursday, July 9, 2015

Westchester Square News: Inmate charged with attacking social worker in Rik...

Westchester Square News: Inmate charged with attacking social worker in Rik...: Inmate charged with attacking social worker in Rikers District Attorney Robert Johnson announced the indictment of 35-yea...

Inmate charged with attacking social worker in Rikers

Inmate charged with attacking social worker in Rikers
District Attorney Robert Johnson announced the indictment of 35-year-old Jonathan Hodgson in the brutal June attack on a Rikers Island medical worker.
Hodgson was arraigned in Bronx Supreme Court before Justice Joseph Dawson and pled not guilty to: assault in the first degree (Class B Felony); assault in the second degree (3 counts) (Class D Felony); assault in the third degree (Class A Misdemeanor) and resisting Arrest (Class A Misdemeanor). 
Hodgson is being held at Rikers Island’s George R. Vierno Center on an underlying Manhattan indictment for attempted murder in the second degree and assault in the first degree for a January, 2015 attack. On June 18th, he stepped into the office where 69-year-old mental health clinician Ralph Atlas was working.  
Hodgson is accused of, without warning or provocation, pummeling the Corizon employee in the face and head, breaking the clinician’s jaw, fracturing his eye socket and nose, as well as causing other injuries for which the victim had to be hospitalized.        
Bail was set at $10,000 following the D.A.’s request for $250,000; Hodgson is to return to court on September 1, 2015, Part 77, Hall of Justice, 265 E. 161st Street, Room 680. The defendant has asked to represent himself in Court.
If convicted of the charges, Hodgson faces up to 25 years behind bars.  The case against Hodgson is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Ara Ayvazian of the Bronx D.A. Intake Bureau.  The charges in this indictment are merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.    
#RikersIsland #NYPD #BronxDA #Bronxnews      




Thursday, July 2, 2015

Westchester Square News: #CaughtonTape: Fast food fools steal ATM

Westchester Square News: #CaughtonTape: Fast food fools steal ATM: #CaughtonTape: Fast food fools steal ATM By Dan Gesslein BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 2- Smile geniuses. A pair of criminal ma...

#CaughtonTape: Fast food fools steal ATM

#CaughtonTape:
Fast food fools steal ATM

By Dan Gesslein
BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 2- Smile geniuses. A pair of criminal masterminds were caught on tape stealing an ATM machine from a fast food restaurant.
At around 10:20 a.m. on June 30, two crooks broke into the Checkers Restaurant off the Grand Concourse. The restaurant's surveillance cameras recorded the masterminds as they rocked the ATM off its attachment to the floor. They then dragged it onto a waiting hand truck and wheeled it out the door.
The masters of disguise thought wearing a bucket cap and baseball cap would hide their identity. However, the crooks' faces can clearly be seen on the video.
Anyone with information is urged to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS.
All calls are strictly confidential.
#CaughtonTape #NYPD #ATM #Bronxnews





Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Westchester Square News: Danced over victim as he lay dying

Westchester Square News: Danced over victim as he lay dying: Gunman convicted in holiday killing Danced over victim as he lay dying BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 1- District Attorney Robert Johnson ann...

Danced over victim as he lay dying

Gunman convicted in holiday killing
Danced over victim as he lay dying
BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 1- District Attorney Robert Johnson announced the jury conviction of 32-year-old Cadman Williams in the Memorial Day weekend 2008 killing of a Yonkers man.
After a six-week-long trial and two hours of deliberation, the Bronx Supreme Court jury found Williams guilty of: manslaughter in the first degree (Class B Felony) and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree (Class C Felony). 
When he is sentenced by Justice Dominic R. Massaro on July 23rd, Williams faces as many as 40 years in prison.
Kenneth Sackey of Yonkers was celebrating not only a new job, but the long, hot, holiday weekend, returning from a family barbecue the evening before Memorial Day to his brother’s apartment in the Bronx. But as they returned to 1749 Grand Concourse, Sackey was loaded for bear, with an attitude and a bat – and when he saw some of the kids with whom he had a spat the night before, he was going to show who was boss. The 42-year-old Kenneth took his bat, and with a backhanded swing, cracked it against the entryway of the building, shattering the wood and sending splinters flying out across the sidewalk.
Williams was friendly with the kids, but he had not been at the deli with them the day before. He was not bruised by the bat, but his ego took a hit. So he hit back, drawing out his .22 caliber revolver, and squeezed off three-to-four shots – two of which hit their mark. Kenneth Sackey tried to flee through the apartment house, but video showed him falling and writhing in pain during his last minutes of life. Either bullet alone would have killed Sackey, as the one in his back struck a major vein that leads back to the heart. The bullet to the victim’s face traveled 

through to his spine.
Another surveillance video showed Williams moments after he walked past his dying victim, dancing a heartless jig as he took the elevator up to his then-girlfriend’s apartment.  
The case against Williams gained some notoriety for the delays bringing it to trial, resulting in an unusually long Rikers Island stay for the defendant. He will be credited for the nearly seven years he spent at Rikers awaiting trial.  
The primary delay involved defense requests that admissibility of the DNA found on the murder weapon be stayed until a Brooklyn judge rendered a decision regarding that type of DNA in an unrelated case. That decision finally came late last year.  But the issue DNA in Williams’ case became irrelevant when the defendant testified on the stand that he, indeed, had fired the fatal shots.
The case against Williams was prosecuted by Bronx Senior Trial Assistant D.A. George Suminski and A.D.A. Amy Schneider of Trial Bureau 20/50.
#NYPD #BronxDA #CadmanWilliams #Bronxnews




Westchester Square News: #CaughtOnTape: Halloween Hooligan Robs Gas Station...

Westchester Square News: #CaughtOnTape: Halloween Hooligan Robs Gas Station...: #CaughtOnTape: Halloween Hooligan Robs Gas Station Outside Co-op By Dan Gesslein BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 1- Poli...

#CaughtOnTape: Halloween Hooligan Robs Gas Station Outside Co-op


#CaughtOnTape:
Halloween Hooligan Robs Gas Station Outside Co-op

By Dan Gesslein

BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 1- Police are trying to catch a Halloween masked hooligan who robbed a gas station outside Co-op City on Tuesday.

At around 3 a.m. on June 30, the suspect used a handgun to stick up the Sunoco gas station at 1945 Bartow Avenue just outside Co-op City. Sporting a Halloween mask and black hoodie, the suspect entered the gas station that sports giant neon signs for “Lottery,” “Beer” and “Cigars.” He waved a handgun at the clerks and demanded cash. Cops say the gunman made off with $650 in cash.

Police released surveillance video taken from inside the gas station’s convenience store. The suspect is described as 5 foot 7 and weighing 150 pounds. He was seen wearing a Halloween mask, a gray hoodie sweatshirt, grey pants and plastic gloves.

Anyone with information is urged to call CRIMESTOPPERS at (800) 577-TIPS. 

The public can also submit their tips by logging onto
Crime Stoppers' website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting
their tips to CRIMES (274637), then enter TIP577.

All calls are strictly confidential.

#CaughtOnTape #NYPD #StickUp #CooCity #Bronxnews